Economy Hits Domainer Oversee.net; Lays Off 10 Percent Of Staff

Oversee.net, a heavily-funded domain-focused firm, has laid off 10 percent of its staff, the company confirmed to socalTech. The LA-based company raised a huge, $150 million round back in January led by PE firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. With the raise, the company indicated it would likely make various domain-related acquisitions, though it now says that the economy is hampering its business. We’ve sent an email to the company for more information, including the exact numbers, and will update as warranted.

Oversee’s outsize raise is consistent with the ambitious fundraising of some others in the domain space. Back in November, domainer Namemedia filed for a $172 million IPO. It last filed an update to its S-1 in April.

DomainNameNews: “The news of Oversee executives staff being canned comes in the wake of other recent disappointing news this month from domain companies. Dark Blue Sea and Tucows both reported less than stellar earnings. DBS pay-per-click revenues were down nearly 50% and Tucows earnings were lower but President Elliot Noss believes that parking revenue may have bottomed out as the company is seeing increases in their domain portfolio pay-per-click earnings.”